People diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may need specific teaching to learn mands for information. Unfortunately, little research has been published on methods for teaching the mand "When?" to this population. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend previous research by teaching 3 children diagnosed with…

Researchers have begun to investigate the emergence of novel intraverbals using equivalence-based instruction (EBI) in typically developing children (Carp & Petursdottir, 2012; Pérez-González, Herszlikowicz, & Williams, 2008). We sought to replicate and extend the previous research by investigating two stimulus equivalence training…

Rule-governed behavior (RGB) results from contact with a verbal description of a contingency as opposed to prior contact with that contingency. Despite its importance, research on the establishment of RGB with learners who do not display the skill is limited. Tarbox, Zuckerman, Bishop, Olive, and O'Hora ("The Analysis of Verbal…

We evaluated the use of a blocked-trials procedure to establish complex stimulus control over intraverbal responses. The participants were four young boys with a diagnosis of autism who had struggled to master intraverbals. The blocked-trials procedures involved presentation of stimuli in separate trial blocks. The trial blocks gradually reduced…

The purpose of the present experiment was to replicate and extend the literature on using selection-based instruction to teach responses to interview questions by (a) evaluating the emergence of recombinative (i.e., combinations of taught) and novel (i.e., untaught) topography-based intraverbal responses, in addition to exact repetitions of taught…

We evaluated the effects of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) on the relation between listener and intraverbal categorization repertoires of six typically developing preschool-age children using a nonconcurrent multiple-probe design across participants. After failing to emit intraverbal categorization responses following listener categorization…

Naming refers to the incidental acquisition of word-object relations as listener and speaker without explicit reinforcement. To investigate possible sources of reinforcement for naming, we examined the effects of a procedure for conditioning reinforcement for observing responses on the emergence of naming in children who previously lacked it. The…

Research has shown that reinforcing novel behaviors can increase the number of different ways that an individual behaves (Goetz & Baer, 1973; Pryor, Haag, & O'Reilly, 1969). However, it was not until more recently that researchers began to consider "variability" to be a reinforceable operant in and of itself (Neuringer, 2002). More specifically,…

Naming is a verbal developmental capability and cusp that allows children to acquire listener and speaker functions without direct instruction (e.g., incidental learning of words for objects). We screened 19 typically developing 2- and 3-year-old children for the presence of Naming for 3-dimensional objects. All 9 3-year-olds had Naming, and 8 of…

Rule-governed behavior is generally considered an integral component of complex verbal repertoires but has rarely been the subject of empirical research. In particular, little or no previous research has attempted to establish rule-governed behavior in individuals who do not already display the repertoire. This study consists of two experiments…

Shaping functional vocal language is difficult when an individual has not yet acquired an echoic repertoire and does not emit sufficient phonemes (i.e., speech sounds) for shaping. Few studies have evaluated interventions to increase the frequency and breadth of phonemes. The current study extended Esch, Esch, and Love (2009) by evaluating the…

We evaluated the facilitative effects of multiple exemplar training (MET) on the establishment of derived tact relations in typically developing children. A multiple-probe design across stimulus sets was implemented to introduce MET. Participants were first taught to conditionally relate dictated names in English to their corresponding objects…

This research examined the role the two constituents of joint control, the tact and the echoic, play in producing accurate selections of novel stimuli in response to their spoken descriptions. Experiment 1 examined the role of tacts. In response to unfamiliar spoken descriptions, children learned to select from among six successively presented…

According to Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior, the mand and the tact are functionally independent verbal operants, each of which is acquired through a unique history of reinforcement. The present study attempted to replicate the findings of Lamarre and Holland (1985), who empirically demonstrated functional independence of mands and…

We tested the effect of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) on acquisition of joint spelling responses, vocal to written and vice versa, for three sets of five words by four kindergarteners with language delays using a delayed multiple probe design. First, students were taught to spell Set 1 as either vocal or written responses (two vocal and two…